Mass influence: funeral of the Hisbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Haschem Safi al-Din in the largest stadium in Beirut
Photo: AFP/Ibrahim Amro
Nothing will come from that! There is still no peace in sight between the Hisbollah and Israel because the prerequisites are missing. The German historian and Middle East expert Joseph Croitoru, born in Haifa in 1960, has analysis »Die Hisbollah in history. Iran’s shadow army at the gates of Israel «the causes of this gloomy forecast.
The Hisbollah is a Shiite organization that has military power and determining political influence in Lebanon. Croitoru once again emphasizes the violently escalating rivalry between the Sunni and Shiite directions of Islam. Historically, the Lebanon is a multicon -fessional state with a proportional constitution that keeps balancing the power structure between the Orthodox and Catholic Christians as well as the competing Sunni and Shiite Muslims again and again.
The center of aggressive, Shiite power development in Middle East is Iran, protective power and financier of the Hisbollah in Lebanon. With great financial effort that is reminiscent of the US Marshall Plan for the western post -war Europe, the Iranian regime supports the Hisbollah and pays their social, military and religious activities that make them appear attractive to the population.
60 percent of the Lebanese population are Muslims, a little more than half of them. Croitoru shows how deeply in their awareness the Hisbollah originally created in the Lebanon War of the Israelis against Plo and Syria as a militia, Croitoru shows based on the terrifying indoctrination of youth in the schools financed by Iran. In these are hatred of Israel and the USA, propagation of violence and the heroization of martyrs ideological basis of teaching. The annihilation of Israel, the reconquest of Jerusalem and the hatred of Jews are central teaching content in these schools, which are often the only educational institutions that are still functioning of this country, which is ruined by financial and political crises.
This murderous ideology is fired by the retaliation strokes of Israel, especially in the south of Lebanon near the border. Croitoru counts the victims and the destroyed buildings with sober objectivity and describes the inner Libanese escape movements of hundreds of thousands to the north of the country, caused by these targeted Israeli attacks. They regularly lead to Hisbollah counter attacks, with a limited military but great political effect, always accompanied by propagandal avalanches of Iran. Since Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza, a shoulder closure of the Shiite Hisbollah has become more and more emerged with the mostly Sunni Palestinians and the Sunnis of Lebanon.
The change of power in Syria has changed the strategic situation until further notice, because the influx of Iranian and Russian weapons over Syria has now been prevented from Hisbollah in Lebanon. Israel’s attacks on the Hisbollah command structure have greatly decimated their military capacities. But this is not a prerequisite for peace, but a source for revenge ideologies that are already in st for the next generation in the Shiite schools.
At the end of November, after weeks of negotiations under American and French mediation, a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel came into force, which the Hezbollah also agreed. An international committee under the leadership of the USA and France should monitor it – the Lebanese government should not only prevent the “restoration and upgrading of non -state armed groups in Lebanon”, but also generally control the sale, delivery and production of weapons in the country. It is very doubtful that the Lebanese army is able to do this. “It was celebrated as a victory that the agreement did not explicitly contain an explicit demand for a disarmament of the Schiiten militia, which once again staged itself as a war winner,” writes Croitoru. According to the agreement, Israel is said to withdraw from the South Libanon, which has so far only been partially done.
The ceasefire agreement was skeptical in Israel, “why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was prompted to justify it in his relevant explanation in striking detail. His simultaneous threat that Israel will react vigorously to non -compliance with the fire break ‘, was quickly implemented with numerous air strikes in the following days and weeks. “
If Iran and the Hisbollah do not take the annihilation of Israel from your to-do list, no peace will arise from the brittle ceasefire.
Joseph Croitoru: The Hisbollah. Iran’s shadow army at the gates of Israel. C. H. Beck, 183 pages, Br., 18 €.